Earlier this year, Victoria, British Columbia, passed what some are calling the most ambitious attempt anywhere in the country to make it easier to densify neighbourhoods: constructing so-called “missing middle” housing.
The policy, adopted in January, is intended to level the playing field for homeowners and developers who want to build denser housing—townhouses, houseplexes, duplexes—by removing the requirement to receive approval from city council, a time-consuming, politically charged, and risky step. Now all that’s needed is a permit from the city, and any single-family home can be converted into, for example, a triplex.
